1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sewing machine control capable of embroidering, and more particularly to a display control for the sewing machine which displays ten numeric keys representing numbers 0-9 so that an operator selects a desired number through a touch panel provided on the display, having touch sensors corresponding to the numeric keys.
2. Related Art
A conventional household electronically controlled sewing machine has a stitching unit having a sewing needle movable in a vertical direction and a needle thread catcher for stitching in cooperation with the needle, a driving unit for driving an embroidery frame on which a workpiece (e.g., cloth) is removably mounted, to move in two directions perpendicular to each other independently, a pattern data memory which stores several kinds of embroidery pattern data representing various objects to be stitched such as a vehicle, a flower and an animal therein, a display, a control panel and so on. When a desired embroidery pattern is displayed on the display and selected by an operator, the driving unit is controlled according to the selected embroidery pattern data so that the desired embroidery pattern is stitched on the workpiece mounted on the embroidery frame by cooperative operation of the driving unit and the stitching unit.
Recently, ROM cards which store many new embroidery patterns are sold separately from the embroidery sewing machines. The new embroidery patterns can be stitched on a blouse or trousers for children, for example, by inserting the ROM card externally into the embroidery sewing machine. For embroidery stitching using the ROM card, various pattern selection methods for selecting a desired embroidery pattern from many patterns appearing on the display are proposed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,503 (JP-A-61-247491) discloses a pattern selection unit for an embroidery sewing machine. In the unit, ten numbers of 0-9 are arranged in a row within a frame located immediately above a laterally-elongated display. An operator of the sewing machine designates a desired two-digit or three-digit number by moving a mini-cursor appearing on the display using a leftward-moving key and a rightward-moving key so that the designated number is selected. An embroidery pattern corresponding to the selected number is stitched on a workpiece. This requires an extra space for arranging the numbers of 0-9. Further, to select an embroidery pattern, the operator has to press the leftward/rightward-moving keys several times according to the digits of the pattern number of the embroidery pattern. Thus, pattern selection operation is complicated and time-consuming.
JP-A-62-101283 discloses a sewing machine having an upper digit key and a lower digit key in the vicinity of a display. An operator selects a two-digit pattern number by using the upper and lower digit keys so that an embroidery pattern corresponding to the pattern number is selected and shown on the display. However, an operator also has to press the upper/lower digit keys several times to select the pattern number, resulting in a complicated pattern selection operation.
JP-B2-1-26317 discloses an electronically controlled sewing machine having ten numeric buttons representing numbers of 0-9 provided in the vicinity of a display. An operator selects a two-digit pattern number by using the numeric buttons so that an embroidery pattern corresponding to the pattern number is selected. However, an extra space for the numeric buttons is required, leading to increase in the size of the sewing machine and a high production cost.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,403 (JP-A-5-123470) discloses an embroidery sewing machine having a display on which a preset number (e.g., five) of embroidery patterns selected from entire stored embroidery patterns are collectively presented on the display in turn as a screen of the display changes. An operator proceeds to the next screen by pressing a next page key until a desired embroidery pattern appears on the display. However, the display needs to be enlarged to display several embroidery patterns simultaneously, resulting in a high production cost of the display. Further, the operator has to press the next page key several times until a desired embroidery pattern appears on the display; therefore, the pattern selection operation is complicated and time-consuming.